Month: July 2015

Anyone who knows me knows that I love journaling and photography. In recent years I’ve used those skills as a way to communicate my garden in a different way. By communicating my garden I am able to document its history and share it with others using a variety of methods.

Many people keep records of their gardens. My dad has kept garden and weather records on paper calendars for many years. For example, he can tell you when the Japanese beetle first emerged each year and when the tomatoes started to ripen.

I have two different ways that I record my gardens. I start with a blank journal where I record names of new garden plants each year and changes in garden design. I also use that journal to walk around my gardens each fall to record what worked, what didn’t, and what I want to try different the next year. These fall notes have proven very useful when I begin planning my gardens the following spring.

I also have a three-ring binder with lots of garden stuff in it. I have garden designs sketched, maps of our property, and plant shopping lists going back to 1998 when we moved to this property. I also have a listing of all plants in my yard, which I handed out when people tour my gardens.

My favorite way to communicate my garden is through photography. If you are my Facebook friend, you’ve seen many of my photos in my plant of the day posts that I do every day during the 6:00 p.m. hour. They are also on my ILRiverHort Page at www.facebook.com/ILRiverHort.

Want to take more photos of your gardens? You can learn how during the “Don’t Blame the Camera: How to Take Better Landscape Photos” Four Season Gardening webinar on July 28 (1:30 pm). The same program is repeated on July 30 at 6:30 pm. Or you can watch the YouTube video following the live webinars. Go to www.extension.illinois.edu and click on calendar for more information.

Chris Tidrick will teach you how to take great photos of your landscape—and he says that it has very little to do with the camera you use! Whether you shoot with a digital SLR, point-and-shoot or even your phone, you can take frame-worthy photos. All you have to do is learn a few techniques, and then shoot. Chris will teach you the basic techniques of garden photography that can be used with the camera you already own.

I invite you to capture your garden’s beauty through journaling, photography, sketching, music, dance, drama, or other artistic skills.

Are you enjoying the “fruits of your labor” from your vegetable garden this summer? With proper care, vegetable gardens provide fresh produce well into the fall.

Although we had record rainfall amounts in June, July might be different. It is essential to keep plants watered consistently during the heat of summer. On average, plants need one inch of water per week and this may need to be stepped up to one inch every five days during the heat of summer. Watering is the most important maintenance item, so don’t skimp on it. Soak the soil thoroughly to a depth of at least 6 inches rather than sprinkling the garden lightly.

If you did not mulch in spring, consider doing it now. Most vegetables benefit from mulching, including tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, beans, and potatoes. Besides controlling weeds, the mulch will save moisture, keep the soil temperature more even, and keep the fruits clean. The many types of mulch include leaves, grass clippings, straw, newspaper, and black plastic.

Pests are one the biggest frustration for home vegetable gardeners. When possible, use disease-resistant varieties. Crop rotation every 3 to 4 years is also very effective for many insect and diseases problems. This is done by moving vegetable types to other areas of the garden or yard.

If you do encounter insect or disease problems, our Master Gardener help-line can help. It is open Monday through Friday from 9 am to noon at (309) 685-3140 ext. 13 or by emailing uiemg-peoria@illinois.edu. Help is also available in Lewistown at 309-547-3711, Havana at 309-543-3308, and Pekin at 309-347-6614.

New gardeners sometimes wonder when they should begin harvesting their product. This varies from crop to crop, but there are some tips that will help the produce stay fresh and tasty longer. Avoid bruising or damaging them, because injury encourages decay. Most vegetables last longer if they are place in cool storage immediately. In particular, sweet corn loses its sweet flavor quickly if it is not cooled as soon as possible.

If you have harvested part of your garden, now is the time to begin your fall garden. A fall garden extends your supply of fresh vegetables. Unfortunately, a successful fall garden demands additional work and planning at a time when you are busiest. Irrigation is usually necessary and weeds grow quickly at this time. But the pleasure you can derive from a fall garden far outweighs the extra effort involved in planning and planting it.

The midsummer planting usually takes place from July 10-20 and could include snap beans, beets, broccoli plants, cabbage plants, carrot, cauliflower plants, and okra. From August 1-10 you could also add many cool-crops such as lettuce, mustard greens, turnips, and winter radishes. Spring radishes, spinach, and more leaf lettuce can go in as late as August 25 to September 5.

To learn more, attend Master Gardener Lee Maki’s “Late Summer and Fall Vegetable Garden” presentation at ICC in E. Peoria on July 25th at 10:00 a.m. Or visit the University of Illinois Extension website “Watch Your Garden Grow” at http://extension.illinois.edu/veggies/.

Sunflowers are popular. It seems one can find a sunflower on almost anything, from throw pillows to towels to floor mats and rugs. I’ve also noticed more and more gardeners growing sunflowers for their beauty, their tasty seeds, or for wild bird feed. My son Tyler has several sunflowers growing in his vegetable garden this year.

True sunflowers are in the plant genus Helianthus and include about 70 species in the Aster family. All but three are native to North America.

I often see our native sunflowers growing along roadsides in central Illinois. These include the annual sunflower (Helianthus annuus) as well as the fall blooming Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus). Jerusalem artichoke has 2 – 3 inch yellow flowers with yellow centers on 2 to 8 foot tall plants. It is also known as the ‘Indian Potato’ because the Native Americans cultivated it and ate the edible root tubers.

The sunflower is often grown as a garden plant. It is easy to grow and even tolerates heat and drought. Simply sow the seeds, after danger of frost, in the sunny garden.

In recent years, there has been an explosion of different types of sunflowers available to home gardeners. Some varieties grow extremely tall, while others have been developed for ornamental use with multiple yellow, red, white or a combination of colored flower heads. I like to categorize them as single stem, branching, or dwarf.

‘Teddy Bear’ is a nice dwarf one (24”) with a showy, fuzzy, fluffy flower. This double flower is brilliant golden yellow with no “centers”. The dwarf ‘Sunspot’ looks more like the traditional sunflower, but only grows 2 ½ feet tall.

‘Mammoth Russian’ and ‘Grey Striped’ are tall single stem varieties. They grow 6-12 feet tall with a single 12 to 24 inch seed head on each sturdy stalk. ‘Giant Sungold’ is a full-sized version of the dwarf Teddy Bear. It grows 10-inch, super-double flowers on 6 to 7 foot plants.

Have you ever passed a sunflower field and noticed that all the flower heads face east? Some researchers refer to this as solar tracking. On sunny days, immature flower buds of some sunflowers track the sun across the sky from east to west. However, as the flower bud matures and blossoms, the stem stiffens and the flower becomes fixed facing the eastward direction.

Another interesting fact about sunflowers is that their hulls have a toxin that prevents the growth of other plants. You might have noticed that soil is often bare under birdfeeders where sunflower hulls accumulate on the ground. This is called allopathy. Remove the hulls regularly or site the feeder where there is no danger of damage to lawns or other desirable vegetation.

You’d have to be living under a rock not to know that pollinator decline is big news right now. I’ve learned through meetings and other reliable sources that many factors contribute to this decline. Below are some facts I’ve found useful and interesting.

What is Pollination? Pollination occurs when pollen grains are moved between two flowers of the same species, or within a single flower. There are many ways that flowers are pollinated, including wind and animals.

According to the website pollinator.org about 75% of all flowering plants rely on animal pollinators and over 200,000 species of animals act as pollinators. Of those, about 1,000 are hummingbirds, bats, and small mammals. The rest are insects such as beetles, bees, ants, wasps, butterflies, and moths.

At a recent pollinator conference I learned that 300 plant species pollinated by bats are foods we eat. Other pollinators of our most colorful healthy foods include native bees, other insects, birds, moths and butterflies, and more. Honey bees are not native here but are important pollinators of many of our food crops.

May Berenbaum, University of Illinois Entomologist, gave the keynote address at that conference, which included information on monarch decline. Monarch decline is also due to many factors including habitat modification, weather, disease, overwintering site deforestation, and more. One of her important points was that we should not plant monocultures of milkweed at the detriment of adult monarchs and the many other native butterflies and moths of Illinois that require different food. Diverse landscapes that include a few milkweeds, some native plants, and less lawn are best.

University of Illinois Extension Master Naturalists and Master Naturalists have many projects across the state that help restore pollinator habitat, including monarch. The Butterfly Habitat at Wildlife Prairie Park is just one example. There are also many monarch way stations built around Illinois.

Many others are joining the bandwagon to protect pollinators. President Obama just announced a new federal pollinator program, the 2014 Farm Bill includes many programs to add pollinator habitat, Trees Forever offers habitat grants, and the list goes on and on. I created a pollinator Pinterest board that links to these and more at https://www.pinterest.com/ilriverhort/pollinators/

Two upcoming programs address this topic. Master Gardener Margie Karl will cover pollinators on July 11 at the ICC Gardens in E. Peoria. Horticulture Educator Sonja Lallemand covers native plants on July 14 (1:30 pm) and again July 16 (6:30 pm) during the Four Seasons Garden webinar series. For more information on both go to http://web.extension.illinois.edu/fmpt or call